Ice Cream Even Baby Can Eat!

July 20, 2011 By

Welcome to Ice Cream Week here at Quick and Easy Cheap and Healthy!

Ice cream is the topic of the hour, all week long. I’ve got some sorbets to share, plus some fun ice cream flavors I’ve been experimenting with, and some other ideas for what to do with all the ice cream you make.(Note: All the recipes are intentionally dairy-free; but with the exception of the sorbets can be made with regular old cow’s milk and cream should you desire.) Come back every day this week for a new recipe!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ice cream that baby can eat? Ice cream that is completely devoid of cream of any sort? Ice cream without sugar? Creamy ice cream? Ice cream that is all those things and also delicious?!?!

Why yes, my friends. And once again, you need go no further than the humble banana. (Maybe I should have called this Banana Week instead of Ice Cream Week!) Except this time, instead of just exploiting the banana’s attributes to make a regular ice cream even better - whether by flavor or by texture - we’re just going to use the banana. Just the banana, that’s it.

OK, you can add in some things if you want. For instance, cocoa comes to mind, or chocolate chips. Or maybe a big spoonful of peanut butter (or non-peanut substitute). Coconut, maybe? Some berries or berry syrup?

All right, now I’m getting a little bit ahead of myself. First, let’s make the “ice cream”.

Baby’s First Ice Cream, aka Banana Ice Cream

Ingredients

  • slightly overripe bananas*
  • splash of vanilla
  • freshly grated nutmeg

Instructions

  1. Peel the bananas and slice them into 1/2″ rounds. Place the rounds in a single layer on a pan and freeze for an hour or two. Remove from the freezer and put into a blender (or put in a bowl, and use an immersion blender, in which case, don’t freeze them rock hard - they should still be a tad moist). Blend, blend and blend some more until you have a creamy ice-cream-like consistency. Add water, a tablespoon at a time, if necessary to help the blender run. Stir in vanilla and nutmeg. Serve immediately soft-serve style, or place back into the freezer for a harder ice cream. I found the ice cream tasted better the next day after the flavors had some time to blend. *There are no specific quantities. Each banana makes about one serving, so adjust to however many servings you want to make.

 

Instead of the vanilla and nutmeg, consider other flavor combinations, such as:

  • dried ginger and candied ginger
  • cinnamon and cardamom
  • almond extract and coconut flakes
  • grated semisweet or dark chocolate
  • small chunks of fresh mango
  • a drizzle of honey or maple syrup
  • a tablespoon or two of peanut butter
  • a tablespoon of cocoa (you may want to add a little honey or sugar, too, to offset the bitter)

Take the simple to the sublime by topping it with:

Bet you never thought ice cream could be so QUICK!

Or so EASY!

Or so CHEAP!

Or so HEALTHY! I didn’t feel the least bit guilty offering it to my Certain Little Someone just now as a mid-morning snack.

BundleoftheWeek.com, 5 eBooks for $7.40!

6 Comments Filed Under: At Home, Children, Dessert, On The Table Tagged With: , , ,

Ice Cream Week Continues with Berry Sorbet

July 19, 2011 By

Welcome to Ice Cream Week here at Quick and Easy Cheap and Healthy!

Ice cream is the topic of the hour, all week long. I’ve got some sorbets to share, plus some fun ice cream flavors I’ve been experimenting with, and some other ideas for what to do with all the ice cream you make.(Note: All the recipes are intentionally dairy-free; but with the exception of the sorbets can be made with regular old cow’s milk and cream should you desire.) Come back every day this week for a new recipe!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Would you believe that this is yet another recipe whose pictures are on that blasted memory card that is who-knows-where?! I have yanked out my hair, searched through every possible hiding spot in this residence, even crawled around on my hands and knees and I can’t find it anywhere. Ugh. Oh well, here’s a picture from the source:


We’re coming to the end of berry season on the east coast here, but the good thing about sorbets is that they often start with frozen fruit anyway, so all you need is a bag or two of frozen berries from the grocery. However, if you happen to have some fresh local berries like I did earlier this month, then so much the better!

When I set out to make my berry sorbet (I used strawberries), I was actually kind of shocked at how much sugar (or corn syrup, for goodness’ sakes!) people threw into their sorbets. Most fruit is sweet enough on its own; it doesn’t need to be doctored up quite so much. Of course, the tart factor might be increased after some time in the freezer, but even so, I found this recipe to be plenty sweet enough, especially when I served it with a sprinkling of homemade granola and a few chocolate chips.

I used this no-sugar-at-all berry sorbet recipe, and it turned out great! It only uses a tablespoon of honey, which means that it is not even an indulgence. It calls for coconut water - I just used the bit of coconut milk left over from a can after I had refrigerated all the cream out of it. Of course, if you have coconut water, you can use it, or you can use plain water. You can try using milk or cream instead, but then it won’t technically be a sorbet anymore. And… we have again a banana in the ice cream! I really think the bananas help to make a nice creamy consistency, and the flavor goes very well with the berries in this recipe.

Easy Sugarless Berry Sorbet

Ingredients

  • 4 cups fresh or frozen berries
  • 1 TBSP honey
  • 1 banana, frozen
  • 1/4 cup coconut milk, coconut water, or water

Instructions

  1. If berries are fresh, wash them, pat them dry and then freeze for an hour or so. Combine all ingredients and blend well in a blender, food processor or with a hand blender. Churn in an ice cream machine until you have reached desired consistency (optional). Freeze in a freezer-safe container for several hours, or eat right away soft-serve style.

If your berries are already frozen, this is one of the QUICKest ice cream recipes around. You can even eat it immediately if desired, since all the main ingredients are frozen to begin with.

It’s also one of the EASY-est, especially since you don’t really even need an ice cream machine (although I think it helps with the texture, too).

It’s CHEAP during berry season, but otherwise, not so much. Frozen berries are available for a good price year-round at Trader Joes.

This is such a HEALTHY ice cream, you don’t even need to feel the list bit guilty about enjoying it! It’s an additional serving of fruits, after all!

BundleoftheWeek.com, 5 eBooks for $7.40!

5 Comments Filed Under: Dessert, On The Table Tagged With: , ,